Erika Andreeva's pride and pressure after sister Mirra's act of triumph

Just before Erika Andreeva began her Wimbledon qualifying campaign, she and her sister Mirra were chatting on the phone. It is what they usually do when they are playing in different cities, and that routine has remained the same – even after Mirra's career-altering Roland Garros victory earlier this month.

For Erika, Tuesday was big. This may have only been the first round of Qualifying, but her impressive 6-0, 6-3 win over China's Ye-Xin Ma meant more than most matches do. This time last year, she lost at this stage, marking her ninth consecutive defeat. It proved to be the last straw.

She was mentally exhausted and decided to take time away from the tour to recoup. Her break lasted four months. "I had a very big streak of losing, I wasn’t mentally in the right place," she says, reflecting on 2025. "I think [the] last match in the Wimbledon qualies, I was [just outside the] top 100 and I was devastated to lose first round. At that point I didn’t enjoy playing. I didn’t feel myself on the court at all. After the match, I was with my coach and said let’s break and see if I want to play again.

"I took two or three months, I didn’t play or do anything at all. At the end of the year after the US Open I had a big amount of points to defend but didn’t play anything in that period, so now I’m trying to gain my way back."

She spent her time away with extended family at their home in the south of France, where she hiked, paddle-boarded on the river and "did lots of activities that I didn’t allow myself to do" when competing on tour. The time away rejuvenated her and she returned to tennis late in 2025. Her ranking has tumbled to 238 in the world, though, and she has been working hard on the ITF circuit in 2026 to try to climb to her previous heights. Most of all, she says she is in a healthier place mentally.

"For sure I feel better about myself, after the match I didn’t feel such a relief that it’s done," she says. "When [I] win I just feel good about myself, and don’t put myself [down], saying 'I’m s*** as a player' or 's*** as a person'. For now I feel [like] myself on court and outside the court. I hope the results will catch up soon.

"When you go down to ITF and Challengers it’s tough because you feel like you don’t deserve what you used to deserve before. This is the biggest challenge to keep saying to yourself 'you just have to play and you’ll see all the things around will come by itself'."

She was unable to get to Paris for her younger sister's first Grand Slam victory. Watching from afar, she only had "good feelings" about Mirra's triumph, but she admits that her own struggles over the past year have produced some mixed emotions amid the excitement of her sister's success.

"I will not lie, it is such a big pressure because you don’t feel the same way as you feel for your sister. I feel really proud of her, because I know her own challenges, things you don’t see on the screen, I know what she deals with. [But] for myself I feel extremely bad, that it’s almost like I’m not good enough, I have to do better. I see what’s going on close to me and basically we work [as] hard [as each other] and I feel like I’m not good enough, doing well enough, like how I’m supposed to do."

Though it was "strange" to watch her sister's greatest moment on television, Erika, 21, says she only feels a great sense of pride for the growth she has seen in her younger sibling.

"Honestly, I know since a very young age she was always struggling with the moments when something was not going her way, to stay in the game, to stay calm, to not let everything down. I remember one of the matches about which I was most proud was against [Marina] Bassols Ribera [in the Roland Garros second round]. I wouldn’t say it was the best match of hers, tennis-wise, but I was just proud that she managed it without feeling her best in the shots that she relies on. She kept going even with a game that she doesn’t like. She managed to win."

The sisters did share three days together at home in Cannes between the clay and grass court seasons though, and a shopping spree for Mirra provided the best form of celebration. "We went [to see] a Louis Vuitton bag and our mum was like 'No, you’re not going to buy this bag for this amount of money, no,'" Erika says laughing. "And then [Mirra] celebrated by buying two Jimmy Choo little heels. [I am the same size] in the heels – the more expensive the shoes, the more the same size!"

She will face American 32nd seed Kayla Day in the second round of Qualifying on Wednesday.